We interview Dolores García Ruiz (Melilla, 1964) after publishing his second novel The sugar queen (Versatile, 2015). With his first novel The Secret of Monna Lisa, The writer obtained recognition from critics and the public, being translated into several languages and published in numerous countries. Although born in Melilla, city to which he pays tribute in this second novel, At the age of nine he moved to Valencia, where you currently reside. He studied Law at the UNED, She collaborates on various radio and television programs and publishes articles in prestigious cultural magazines and is a professional editing editor..
Is this novel in some way a tribute to your hometown?, in Melilla?
Yeah, of course, of course. To my hometown and to the people of Melilla because, look what a curious thing, It is such a beautiful city that it is the second city in the world with the greatest modernist heritage after Barcelona., and yet, the majority of Spaniards are unaware of it, They don't know what a gem they have in the Mediterranean. Yeah, It is a tribute because it is a city that has fought a lot for itself, for maintaining a series of Western values, It really is the door to Europe and has been for more than 500 years being, it's nothing new.
Ines Belmonte, the protagonist de The sugar queen, What personality traits would you highlight??
The ability to reinvent yourself, which is very fashionable now, Well, Inés Belmonte is a woman., who in principle arrives there with a comfortable life, with a promising future and, suddenly, loses everything, has to move forward, Not only her but she has to raise her family, to his sisters, to his mother. Maybe that strength of spirit, that ability to adapt to circumstances and, above all, the ability to start over. What Inés Belmonte does with the elements close to her, resources and people, start over, It is something very difficult and truly very admirable and Inés Belmonte is going to do it in an incredible way.
I have seen that some characters have flaws: a limp, a heart condition or senile dementia…, Is it a way to humanize the characters?
Indeed, It's like that in real life, People are not perfect and yet we can live great stories, many people are living authentic stories and do not realize it. Sometimes a person who is not physically perfect has an exciting life even if they do not realize it.. We are not perfect people, as Inés Belmonte; she is a beautiful woman, but nevertheless she, Look, he doesn't think she's beautiful. I think it happens to a lot of people., who doesn't realize how much he is worth, in many aspects, not only physically, in talent and in humanity.
I also wanted in some way to show that true heroes are not always those men who decided to be heroes., They were because they had to be heroes. They could have surrendered or fled but they didn't do that.. In any case, Common heroes appear in my novel and I don't want to miss that in everyday life there are anonymous heroes, very valuable people, people with a lot of value, that adds value to life every day, who care for chronically ill people, They are silent heroes to whom no one pays attention, This is also a way to demand not only help from the administration but also the recognition of the entire society.. When we meet someone who is caring for a chronically ill person, a difficult disease to bear, I believe that the least we have to do is show them respect and our collaboration..
The novel alternates past and present, It is narrated in counterpoint. Did you choose it that way to give agility to the story??
That was the idea, because what I didn't want was, somehow, drop the historical roll. Because a novel has to be that, fiction and have the reader immersed in an environment, because for the other things the history books are already there; above all I wanted to tell stories, stories of people, character stories, because all those who appear there make up a kind of mosaic, real and fictional characters. I wanted to tell the story of a series of people who find themselves in an extreme situation and how with their few resources they are able to overcome those obstacles.. Perhaps this is what happens throughout the evolution of Inés Belmonte's character., that starts in a way, enriched with suffering, with what you have enjoyed life. It's a life lesson, to teach us how we can overcome difficult situations and how, despite living great dramas, how you can come away enriched from what you learn, sad, hurt, but enriched.
What do you have in common The secret of Mona Lisa, his previous novel, y The sugar queen?
What we would call the theme, I think is very similar., the search for oneself, building oneself throughout life. Perhaps in Inés Belmonte it is even clearer than in 'The Secret of Monna Lisa' regarding Leonardo. I believe that what they have, both Lisa and Inés, is that common point, They are people who don't have it easy at all, They have it very complicated and they have to fight against all the obstacles that stand in their way to be the way they are., It's very complicated and they only manage to achieve it, They never quite get it, but in that fight is the beauty of your existence, and perhaps it is what the reader likes when reading the novel.
GINÉS VERA
